Oklahoma State Tragedy Hits Close to Home
UCSB Coach, Former S.B. High Star Mourn Death of Cowgirls' Basketball Coaches
Hours after she celebrated her first regular-season victory as coach of the UCSB women’s basketball team, Carlene Mitchell woke up to the news that her counterpart at Oklahoma State had been killed in a plane crash.
“Devastated!” Mitchell posted on Twitter. “Lost a great friend, mentor and coach! Kurt Budke gave me a chance as a player and helped groom me as a coach.”
Budke and his assistant coach, Miranda Serna, were aboard single-engine plane on a recruiting trip. It crashed in an Arkansas forest Thursday afternoon, killing both coaches along with the pilot and the pilot’s wife.
